UK Singles Chart logo.
The
UK Singles Chart is compiled by
The Official Charts Company
(OCC) on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart
contains the top 200 singles based upon combined record sales and
download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40
(such as the BBC) or the Top 75 (such as
Music Week Magazine) of this list.
Around 6,500 UK
retail
outlets contribute sales data, as well as most UK online digital
download stores. Unlike in the U.S.
, no airplay statistics are used for the official UK
Singles Chart. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday,
with most UK
singles being released
on Mondays.
The Top 40 chart is first revealed on Sunday afternoons by
BBC Radio 1 (prior even to posting on the OCC’s
own
website), with the chart subsequently
being printed in
Music Week magazine (Top
75 only) on the following Monday, and the independent newsletter
ChartsPlus (Top 200) on Wednesdays. It is
also published online on various sites (generally Top 40 only).
Radio 1 broadcasts the Top 40, in reverse order, on Sundays from
16:00 to 19:00.
Mark Goodier and
Bruno Brookes are famous for having
been the presenters of this chart show for many years, though few
can rival
Alan Freeman whose
Pick
Of The Pops formed the chart show throughout the 1960s and
into the early 70s. Since October 2007,
Reggie Yates has presented the chart show and,
until September 2009, with
Fearne
Cotton. Cotton was the first ever permanent female presenter of
the Official Chart Show. A rival chart called
The Big Top 40 Show, is based on
downloads and commercial radio airplay, which is broadcast on 140
commercial local radio stations.
According to the Official UK Charts Company's statistics, as of 29
November 2009, 1,115 singles have topped the UK singles chart. The
precise number is debatable due to the profusion of different
competing charts during the 50s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, although
the usual list used is that endorsed by the
Guinness Book of British
Hit Singles and subsequently adopted by The Official UK Charts
Company.
History
Early charts
Singles
charts based on sales of records were first published by the
American
Billboard magazine as early as
1940. In that respect the United Kingdom could be said to have been slow to pick up on the
idea. The first British singles chart based on sales, was
published in the 14 November 1952 edition of the
New Musical Express (
NME).
Even then, it was at first little more than a gimmick, compared to
the more prestigious sheet music charts. These had been produced on
and off since 1936, and in their turn formed the basis of the
first-ever
chart countdown show on
Radio Luxembourg. The new sales
chart was a tool in the circulation war against
NME's much
older (and more popular) rival
Melody
Maker. The chart, described as a top 12 although the first
one actually listed 15 records due to tied positions, was the
creation of the paper's advertising manager, Percy Dickins, who
compiled it by telephoning around 20 major record stores and
aggregating their sales reports. He would continue to personally
oversee the compilation of the chart well into the 1960s.
The chart rapidly became one of the paper's most popular features.
After only a few weeks, it started being quoted in record company
advertisements and press releases. In October 1954 it expanded to a
Top 20 and in April 1956 to a Top 30. The chart also spawned
imitators;
Record Mirror
launched its own chart in 1955 and
Melody Maker on 7 April 1956. However,
none of this meant that the sheet music chart became redundant
overnight. For a few more years it was still regarded as important,
and was probably more accurately compiled, but the sales chart was
the chart of the future.
The forerunner of today's official chart first appeared in the
music trade publication
Record
Retailer (now
Music
Week) in March 1960 as a Top 50, but was not immediately
recognised as the definitive chart in the country. Arguably, the
NME chart was still the most recognised chart, and had the
advantage of widespread exposure due to its use by
Radio Luxembourg. Throughout the
sixties, the various different charts vied for public recognition,
leading to some historical anomalies - for example,
The Beatles' second single "
Please Please Me" was listed at number one
on most charts, but not in
Record Retailer. To add to the
confusion, the chart used by the
BBC on their
popular shows
Pick of the
Pops and
Top Of The
Pops, in an effort to remain impartial, was actually
calculated by averaging out all the others, and so did not agree
with any of them, and was prone to tied positions, the most
notorious example being when three records (The
Beach Boys "
Do It Again", The
Bee Gees "
I've Gotta Get a Message to
You", and
Herb Alpert's "
This Guy's In Love With You")
tied at Number 1 in Summer 1968. There were also charts, such as
that used in the mid 1960s by the "
pirate" station
Radio London (the "Fab 40"), which,
because of the size of the audience, were influential, but were
essentially
airplay charts
(allegedly influenced by
payola) and bore no
relation to sales.
In February 1969 a more reliable chart emerged, from an alliance
between the BBC and Record Retailer. For the first time a
professional polling organisation,
BMRB, was
commissioned to oversee the chart, and a pool of 500 record shops
was used, more than twice as many as had been used for any previous
chart. The new Official Top 50, computer-compiled for the first
time, was inaugurated in the week ending 12 February 1969. Since
then it, and its successors, have been published every week by
Record Retailer and then
Music Week.
In May 1978, the singles chart was expanded from a Top 50 to a Top
75.
Electronic Age
In January 1983 ; BMRB lost their contract to
Gallup, who arranged for electronic
data gathering to replace the old sales diary method of
compilation, which as well as being reliant on the smooth running
of the postal service (as had been demonstrated by a two month long
postal strike in early 1971), was also vulnerable to anyone wanting
to manipulate the charts (as revealed in a 1980 exposé by
World in Action). Although
Gallup had been producing the charts since 1983, the first chart
terminals appeared in record shops in 1984. As a result, in October
1987, it was now possible for the chart, incorporating sales up to
close of business on Saturday, to be announced on Sunday afternoon,
rather than being delayed until Tuesday (or even Wednesday
following a bank holiday) as was previously the case. From this
time on, the Sunday BBC Radio 1 chart show would broadcast a new
chart for the first time rather than give the final run-down of a
chart that had been around for the past five days.
The chart was still officially a Top 75. However, in January 1983
Gallup started producing a "Next 25" section, i.e. positions
76-100, and this was printed in the official trade magazine
Music Week and also
Record
Mirror from then on. This section was not however an accurate
reflection of sales. Discs that that been falling by more than a
certain amount were excluded, allowing others to climb to positions
they did not really hold. If a former hit showed a small increase
in sales (perhaps by being sold at cut-price to clear the remaining
copies from stores quickly), it appeared as a re-entry when it had
actually only gone back up a few places.
By 1990 costs to produce the charts had risen to over £600,000.
Gallup sampled (depending on
source) 900 or 1,500 stores each week. The trade association of UK
record companies,
British
Phonographic Industry Ltd. (BPI), announced in January the
termination of the contracts with
Gallup, Music Week and the BBC for
30 June 1990. On 1 July 1990, the publishing company of Music Week,
Spotlight Publications/Link House Magazines, formed a new
independent company, Chart Information Network Ltd. (CIN), to
commission the charts. CIN co-operated with Gallup, the
BBC and the British Association of Record Dealers
(BARD). Initially the BPI refused to get involved in CIN's Chart
Supervisory Committee (CSC) or to authorise the charts.
In November 1990, the "Next 25" section of the UK singles chart,
i.e., positions 76–100 with specially applied rules, ceased to be
printed in the official trade magazine
Music
Week. Between 24 November 1990 and 6 April 1991, only
Record Mirror continued to print the "Next 25".
In January 1991, CIN became a joint-venture between
Music
Week publisher Spotlight/Link House and the BPI. Each part
pays 50% of the cost of the charts, which had then risen to £1
million, but also shares equally in the revenue. The CSC now
comprised members from
Music Week, CIN, Gallup, the BBC,
BARD, and the BPI. Subsequently CIN sought to open new marketing
opportunities and sponsorship deals; these included premium-rate
fax and telephone services and chart newsletters,
Charts+Plus (published from May 1991 to November 1994) and
Hit Music (published from
September 1992 to May 2001).
From May 1991, the newly established newsletter "Charts+Plus"
featured the singles charts with positions 76–200 (plus artist
albums positions 76–150, Top 50 compilations, and several genre and
format charts. In September 1992, a second newsletter was created:
"
Hit Music" features, among other charts,
the singles Top 75 plus a revived "Next 25".
In early 1993, tenders were sought for the chart compilation
contract. Gallup's contract was to run out by the end of January
1994. In April 1993, BARD renewed its contracts with CIN. The BARD
member companies were to provide sales data exclusively to CIN. In
May 1993, CIN announced that Millward Brown, subsidiary of global
advertising, media and communications conglomerate WPP (headed by
Sir
Martin Sorrell), had won the
chart contract. The main points of discussion were the rising
costs, advances in technology, and better access to data. CIN would
control the analysis of data and also own the copyright in all of
Millward Brown's research.
On 1 February 1994, Millward Brown took over as compiler of the CIN
charts. The initial size of the sample was 1,250, rising to 1,600
by April 1994. The first chart based on Millward Brown data was
published on 6 February 1994 (chart date: 12 February 1994).
In November 1994,
Charts+Plus ceased publication, and
Hit Music expanded its chart
coverage to an uncompressed (in other words, not applying any
special rules) Top 200 Singles, Top 150 Artists Albums and Top 50
Compilations. In November 1996 the Artist Albums chart extended to
a Top 200.
In November 2001 Chart Information Network (CIN) changed its name
to "
The Official UK
Charts Company".
With its edition no.439 in May 2001,
Hit
Music ceased publication. By September 2001, chart
enthusiast Herman Verkade entered a licensing agreement with CIN
and created an independent new chart publication:
ChartsPlus, covering the Top 75 Singles
chart plus compressed positions 76–200, as well as the Top 200
artist albums chart, Top 50 compilations, and many other format and
genre charts.
The Internet Age
In 2005
Wes Butters presented the last
ever UK Top 40 concluding his time at Radio 1. The chart show was
then radically re branded for the chart week ending 16 April, the
first singles chart combining physical release sales with legal
downloads began. Several test charts, and finally an actual
download sales chart on its own, were published in 2004, but this
combination within the official singles chart reflected a changing
era, where sales of the physical single were falling while download
sales were rising. On 17 April 2005, hosts JK and Joel commented
during the broadcast on BBC Radio 1 that the incorporation of
download sales had resulted in an approximate doubling of singles
sales on the week. For the first week's combined chart, however,
the impact of this doubling was not readily apparent at the top of
the chart, although a few singles in the middle positions
benefited.
Initially, the British Association of Record Dealers were worried
about the popularity of downloading taking away business from the
high street. They also complained that including singles that were
not available physically would confuse customers and create gaps in
stores' sale racks. But they did agree to the new rules provided
that digital sales were only included to a single's sales tally so
long as there was a physical equivalent sold in shops at the time.
However, as there was no rule for the minimum number of pressings,
Gorillaz got round this by releasing just
300 vinyl copies of their single "
Feel
Good Inc." on 12 April 2005, a month before its general
release. This allowed it to debut in the chart at number 22
(eventually reaching number 2) and remain in the Top 40 for a
longer period.
After pressure from elsewhere in the music industry, a second
compromise was reached in 2006, which now allowed singles to chart
on downloads the week before their physical release.
Black Eyed Peas and
Ne*Yo charted early as a result, and on 2 April 2006,
"
Crazy" by
Gnarls Barkley became the first song to top
the charts on music download sales alone. As part of the revised
rules, singles would now be removed from the chart two weeks after
the deletion of the physical formats, which meant "Crazy" fell out
of the chart 11 weeks later from number 5, and a subsequent
chart-topper,
Nelly Furtado's
"
Maneater",
disappeared from number 10. This was in addition to the already
in-force rule that in order to be eligible for the chart, the
physical single had to have been released within the last twelve
months. This was a very unpopular decision with chart followers, as
it made a mockery of the charts apparently fairly representing the
biggest selling singles. It meant a song could sell enough to be
number one, but because it had been deleted 2 weeks earlier it
wouldn't even be in the Top 200.
Over the coming months digital sales continued to increase whilst
physical sales continued to fall, which saw more and more artists
entering the top 40 early, and fewer and fewer singles entering the
chart directly at number 1. Whilst initially the proportion of
digital sales to physical sales in the combined tally was
relatively low, a majority of singles are now seeing more than 50%
of their sales coming from online. Sales through mobile phones and
video downloads are now also counted, but it is no longer expected
that sales data of ringtones will ever be included.
On 1 January 2007 the integration of downloaded music into the
charts became complete when all downloads - with or without a
physical equivalent - became eligible to chart. This saw a few
singles gain publicity: the aforementioned "Crazy" and "Maneater",
still selling strongly on downloads some time after their physical
equivalents had been deleted, both returned to the chart along with
several others that had been removed in the preceding months.
"
Chasing Cars" by
Snow Patrol surged back in at a Top 10 position
(number 9, just three places below the peak it had reached the
previous September), while "
Honey to
the Bee" by
Billie Piper, following
a tongue-in-cheek promotional push by
Radio
1 DJ Chris Moyles
to test out the new chart rules, reappeared at number 17, almost
eight years after its original chart run.
The second song to return to the Top 40 several years after its
first hit run was "
I'll Be Missing
You" by
Puff Daddy &
Faith Evans, which reappeared at number 32 a
full decade after it originally topped the chart.
The impetus this time
was Puff Daddy's recent performance of a new version of the track
at the Princess Diana Memorial
Concert at Wembley
. Two
months later
Luciano Pavarotti's
"
Nessun Dorma" returned to the chart at
number 24 in the week following his death, 17 years after it was
first a hit, climbing subsequently to number 12, while a drumming
gorilla in a
Dairy Milk television advert
helped "
In the Air Tonight" by
Phil Collins to climb to number 14, 26
years after it was first a hit and 19 years since its last chart
appearance as a re-mix. None of these songs had been officially
re-issued.
"
Blag, Steal and
Borrow" by
Koopa became the first
song to chart without ever being released physically (and the first
by an unsigned band to do so). Later in the year they would do it
again twice, with "One Off Song for the Summer" and "The Crash"
reaching #21 and #16 respectively, while the band remained unsigned
until the following year.
Following the cancellation of its physical release "
Say It Right" by
Nelly
Furtado was the first Top 10 hit to get through its entire
chart career without a single copy ever appearing in any shop.
"
Lord Don't Slow Me Down" by
Oasis became the second, "
Violet Hill" by
Coldplay the third, and "
Disturbia" by
Rihanna the fourth, while "
Candyman" by
Christina Aguilera had a chart run that
took it into the Top 20 (number 17) entirely on downloads.
However, it was only a matter of time before there was a number 1
hit never released physically.
This honour went to Run by Leona
Lewis, the 11th song in total to reach number 1 on downloads
alone, but unlike the previous ten, it did not go on to receive a
physical release in subsequent weeks (it should be pointed out
though that it has been released physically overseas, for example
in Germany
).
New rules were added to the chart on 16 September 2007 to include
one track CD singles with a limit of 15 minutes and to retail at a
minimum of 69p per one track CD single.
One noticeable effect that the new chart rules have had, has been
to show up the staying power of many downloads, especially if a
physical copy is no longer (or never has been) available. Despite a
seven-week gap in its chart run in late 2006 while ineligible under
the old rules, Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars", mentioned earlier, has
now clocked up 94 weeks on the chart, an amount bettered by only
one other single in the whole of chart history ("
My Way" by
Frank
Sinatra with 124 weeks). "
Rule the
World" by
Take That has made it to 70
weeks, putting it in 3rd place in the all-time list; "
Sex on Fire" by
Kings
of Leon is on 62 weeks (5th); "
Use
Somebody" by Kings of Leon is on 60 (6th); "
Rehab" by
Amy Winehouse is on 57 (joint 8th); "
Low" by
Flo Rida
featuring
T-Pain is on 53 (joint 13th);
"
Umbrella" by
Rihanna is on 51 (15th); "
Rockstar" by
Nickelback and
I'm Yours by
Jason Mraz are each on 50 (joint 16th); two other
Take That songs ("
Patience" and "
Shine"), are on 40 and 42 weeks
respectively, while many hits by other people have passed the
30-mark. These include two more Amy Winehouse titles: her guest
vocal appearance on
Mark Ronson's
version of the
Zutons' "
Valerie"
on 39 weeks, and "
Back to
Black", which has made it to 34 weeks despite getting no higher
than number 25. Meanwhile, "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado (also
mentioned earlier), despite never being released physically,
clocked up 31 weeks purely as a download.
Leonard Cohen's "
Hallelujah", as covered by
Jeff Buckley in 1994 charted at number
2 on 21 December 2008 on downloads alone, following the formation
of a 110,000-strong protest group on
Facebook to get it above (winner of
The X Factor 2008)
Alexandra Burke's version for Christmas
number one.
Another consequence of the new chart rules that was widely expected
but which has
not so far materialised to any great extent,
is that in the event of a high-profile new album release by a major
act, all or most of its tracks could appear on the singles chart
due to people downloading individual songs rather than the complete
album. With the exception of one or two tracks by Mika and also
Arctic Monkeys, there was no
significant example of this happening until early October 2007,
with the cast of
High School
Musical 2 placing six of its songs simultaneously in the Top 75
(although these were credited to their individual performers), with
a further four just outside. A month later
Leona Lewis placed five tracks from her album
Spirit simultaneously on the
singles chart. A more pronounced example may come with the
long-awaited arrival of the
Beatles'
catalogue online, with the most optimistic forecasters predicting
the entire top 10 being taken up by Beatles songs.
One effect of the new rules that was expected and
did
materialise, was the reappearance in the chart of a number of
seasonal favourites in the run-up to Christmas 2007, in what looks
set to become an annual event. In 2007 a total of 19 achieved this,
without any being officially re-issued, and so reappeared on
downloads alone. Two of these (by
Mariah
Carey and
The Pogues), reached the
Top 5. Two more old yuletide songs, never previously hits in the
UK, also charted, by
Andy Williams and
Perry Como. In the run-up to Christmas
2008, 11 Christmas titles returned to the Top 75; these included
the Mariah Carey and Pogues songs, which both climbed as high as
number 12 this time. In the run-up to Christmas 2009, the Mariah
Carey and Pogues songs have reappeared yet again, though these are
the only ones so far.
The death of
Michael Jackson on 25
June 2009 triggered a surge in sales of his recordings that was as
massive as it was anticipated, but this was the first time in the
download era that the effect of a major star's death on the chart
could be observed. In the week beginning 28 June a total of 16 of
his solo hits plus 4 more by the
Jackson 5
or
Jacksons re-entered the chart, the
biggest simultaneous invasion by an artist in history.
The following week the momentum continued. 27 Jackson titles
charted in the Top 75 (21 solo, 1 with his sister
Janet, and 5 by the Jackson 5/Jacksons), with
"
Man In The Mirror" charting the
highest at Number 2. In addition all 20 of the previous week's
entries were climbers. However, one week later the trend had
generally gone into reverse, with fewer titles on the chart and
most of those falling.
Comparison of UK singles charts prior to 1969
- New Musical Express (NME)
Launched the first UK singles sales chart (a top 12) on 14 November
1952, initially compiled on a points system, from a sample of 15-30
from a pool of 53 shops. The chart was expanded to a Top 20 from 1
October 1954, a Top 30 from 13 April 1956 and a Top 50 from April
1963. The sample size was initially 15-30 shops, expanded to 70 by
the early 1960s and 150 by June 1963.
NME compiled its own
chart until 28 May 1988, after which it used the Network Chart
(compiled by MRIB for broadcast on commercial radio in the UK in
direct competition to the official chart show on Radio 1, and
hosted at the time by
David Jensen) for
some years.
Launched a top 10 singles chart on 22 January 1955, later expanded
to a Top 20 and then Top 30. Discontinued in March 1962 when
Record Mirror began taking the Record Retailer
chart.
Radio Luxembourg was hugely influential in the 1950s and 1960s, but
never had its own chart. It launched a Top 20 based on
Melody
Maker's sheet music chart as early as 1948 and switched to
using the
NME Top 20 singles sales chart at the start of
1960. During the 1970s, the chart fractured into multiple genre
charts.
Launched a Top 10 singles sales chart in April 1956, alongside (but
eventually superseding) the sheet music chart it launched ten years
earlier. The chart became a Top 50 in September 1962. Its sample
size was 30 at launch, expanding to 110 by 1963, 150 by 1965 and
220 by the time it merged with the Disc chart in August 1967.
Launched a top 20 singles chart in February 1958, based on a sample
of 25 shops. It expanded to a Top 30 with a sample of c.75-100
shops by 1966. The chart became a Top 50 in April 1966 and merged
with
Melody Maker's chart in August 1967. Due to Disc's
lower circulation and smaller sample size, its chart is not
generally considered as important as other charts of the same
period.
Trade magazine Record Retailer launched a Top 50 singles chart on
10 March 1960. Its sample was only 30 shops to begin with, growing
to 40 by March 1962, 60 by March 1963 and 80 by 1969. This was the
only major singles chart to exclude EPs, which had their own
separate chart until 30 November 1967. EPs were allowed into the
main singles chart from that point on, just in time for The
Beatles'
Magical
Mystery Tour to enjoy a chart run which peaked at
#2.
- British Broadcasting Corporation
Introduced
Pick of the Pops on 4
October 1955, fortnightly until the end of the year, then weekly
thereafter, based on an average of the
Record Mirror and
NME singles charts (and probably also
Melody
Maker from April 1956).
Building the canon
While the BBC/Record Retailer chart is almost universally accepted
as definitive for the period from February 1969 onwards, there is
some controversy over which charts should be considered "correct"
prior to this. The most common solution to this problem is to
regard the Record Retailer chart as the correct one from its
inception in 1960, and the
NME chart before
that. This approach originated with the
Guinness Book of British
Hit Singles, first published in 1977. However, it may be
argued that almost nobody considered the Record Retailer chart to
be canonical at the time of publication, at least until
Record
Mirror began publishing it as well. Some chart reference books
simply take
Record Mirror as their source from the start;
this is the approach taken by
The Top 20 Book compiled
biannually by Tony Jasper from 1978 to 1994 and
Rock File,
an annual publication during the 1970s whose "Chart Log" feature
was effectively the forerunner to "British Hit Singles", as well as
numerous books by
Dave McAleer. The
result of this approach is a chart that begins in 1955, and joins
up with the
Record Retailer chart (and so agrees with the
Guinness book) in 1962.
A case may also be made for considering the
NME
chart to be the correct one for at least part of the 1960s, since
it was arguably the one followed by the most people. Similarly,
Melody Maker's charts could be considered correct for the
same period because they drew on the largest number of shops for
their compilation. (However, the latter is less practical since
unlike the
NME charts, the
Melody Maker charts
have never been reprinted and are therefore difficult to
obtain.)
The Official UK Charts Company have adopted the Guinness solution
as defining the official chart canon, however different approaches
continue to exist.
Criteria for inclusion
In order to qualify for inclusion in the UK singles chart, a single
must meet the following criteria:
- It must be available on one or more eligible formats. Eligible
formats are CD, DVD,
Vinyl, Cassette, digital download, MiniDisc and flexi
disc.
- All formats must contain the featured track or
a version/remix of it.
- Only three formats can be included in a single's sales. Sales
of any additional formats are disregarded when calculating a
single's chart position.
- The single must meet a minimum dealer price requirement, to
prevent record companies from making cut-price deals with
retailers.
- Each format must have no more than four different tracks on it,
though each song may appear in any number of different
versions.
- The maximum running time for any format is 25 minutes if more
than one different song is featured, or 40 minutes if only one song
is featured in multiple versions/mixes.
- A "mini CD" format is now recognised for chart purposes. It can
have a running time of up to ten minutes and can feature no more
than two tracks. It must be an 8 cm CD and sold in a single
jewelcase. Its minimum price requirement is lower than the regular
CD single. This cheaper alternative was first recognised in October
2003 as part of a drive to make singles more attractive to buyers
in the face of widespread music downloading, despite this size of
CD being used in many other countries (such as Japan) for single
releases for many years.
The full chart regulations also place limits on how chart singles
can be packaged and what free gifts can be offered to purchasers.
The full regulations can be downloaded from
the Official UK Charts Company website.
Broadcasting the charts
BBC Radio 1 was first broadcast in 1967,
and has always included a broadcast of the official chart. In
initial years, only the top twenty was broadcast. This was then
gradually expanded so that the chart now covers the top forty
singles although the entire Top 40 was not played until the start
of 1991. Fourteen years later the chart show was revamped once
more, with only the Top 20 singles being guaranteed to be played.
Starting from 14 October 2007
Fearne
Cotton and
Reggie Yates presented
the Top 40 show on Sundays. The chart show has always been
broadcast on a Sunday evening and has only been cancelled once - on
31 August 1997, owing to the death of
Princess Diana.
For many years during the 1970s the chart was revealed on a Tuesday
lunchtime (or Wednesday following a bank holiday), initially during
Johnnie Walker's lunchtime show
with
Booker T. and the MGs'
"Time is Tight" as backing music. This was later continued by
Paul Burnett,
Dave Lee Travis and
Gary Davies. During this era, Top 40 on Sunday
was merely a repeat of this (but, crucially, broadcast in FM
stereo) - however, since October 1987 the new chart has been
broadcast for the first time on Sundays.
The television version of the chart show, called
The UK Top
40, began in 2002 on the children's BBC output strand
CBBC, which broadcast selected video
highlights and the entire top 10 countdown. It was hosted by
Adrian Dickson and
Konnie Huq from its inception until September
2004, and then by
Andrew
Hayden-Smith until the last edition on 12 June 2005.
The Sunday chart show was originally entitled "Pick Of The Pops",
when it first aired on Radio 1. It was presented by Alan "Fluff"
Freeman, who had been in charge of the show on the
BBC Light Programme since 1961 (though
with two brief gaps in his early years when the BBC were unsure
about his style, which was very informal for the Corporation at the
time). He later took it to Capital Radio where it combined the
current Top 15 (different from the BBC chart) and a Top 15 from the
past. He brought the format back to Radio 1, now as an oldies
showcase featuring three different charts from the past, after they
went stereo full-time in 1988 (they were only available in stereo
via a frequency shared with Radio 2, which was mostly taken up by
Radio 2 - Radio 1 was only available via that frequency from 22:00
to 00:00 on weeknights, Saturdays between 13:00 and 19:30 and
Sundays from 17:00 until closedown).
From 1 October 1972, it was presented on Sundays by
Tom Browne from 16:00 on
Radio 1's 247 metres medium wave and also VHF from 18:00 to 19:00
(linking with the
BBC Radio 2
transmitters).
Simon Bates occasionally
stood in for him from May 1976 onwards. The programme - which prior
to March 1974 was a three hour show called "Solid Gold Sixty" - was
carried by both Radio 1 and Radio 2 up to early 1979.
After Tom Browne finished his last chart rundown on 26 March 1978,
Simon Bates was made the permanent host. From 12 November 1978 it
was expanded to a Top 40, starting at 17:00 - the first hour going
out on Radio 1 only and Radio 2 opting in from 18:00. Eventually,
it became exclusive to Radio 1, but was carried on FM via the
frequency the two stations shared, so listeners could hear it in
stereo and get good reception, especially after dark. About this
time, there were frequency changes that only affected long and
medium wave transmissions - Radio 4 moving to long wave, Radio 2
moving to medium wave, Radio 3 moving to Radio 1's old frequency
(that now carries
Absolute Radio) and
Radio 1 moving up the dial. Reception of Radio 1 was still often
quite poor, though.
From 2 September 1979 to 3 January 1982,
Tony Blackburn took over the helm. Having
been axed from his daily show after twelve years, he also took over
at this point from
Ed Stewart on
Junior Choice at weekends - a programme that
was discontinued when kids stopped asking for Milly Molly Mandy and
started asking for songs from the charts, which, by this time,
featured acts like
The Specials,
Madness and
The Selecter.
From 10 January 1982 to 1 January 1984,
Tommy Vance hosted the show. Although usually
considered a specialist in
heavy
metal and rock music, which he presented on the
Friday Rock Show, he showed his versatility
introducing, and giving facts about, a wide range of records.
From 8 January to 23 September 1984, Simon Bates took over again
for a second time, but on 30 September (also Radio 1's 17th
anniversary) he was replaced by
Richard
Skinner. This was the date when
The Network Chart Show began in
direct competition on the
Independent Local Radio network.
There were several differences between the official chart and its
competitor - although Radio 1 was normally only available in mono,
its chart show was broadcast in FM stereo, but the Network Chart
was only in mono until the early 1990s (because the lines from
LBC, which carried the
show to the rest of the network and were normally only used for
news bulletins, could only carry mono transmissions). Unlike the
Radio 1 chart, the Network Chart also counted airplay in its
compilation and included commercials. The rival chart enjoyed some
success for a while, and was more up-to-date than the Radio 1 chart
for its first three years (with a very few songs, such as
Ferry Aid's version of "
Let It Be", topping the Network
Chart before they had entered the official chart at all), but the
official chart had emerged triumphant by the end of the
1980s.
From the spring of 1986,
Bruno Brookes
took over - through the late 1980s the show was preceded by
"Chartbusters", which featured songs bubbling under the Top 40.
From 30 September 1990 to 1 March 1992 he was succeeded by
Mark Goodier. Brookes came back from 15 March
1992 (after Tommy Vance had returned for a week) but left the
station three years later, and was succeeded by Goodier again on 23
April 1995 and from the early 2000s
Scott
Mills filled in for Goodier when he was on holiday. Goodier
left the show on 17 November 2002, the fiftieth anniversary of the
chart's founding. His successors have been
Wes Butters,
JK and
Joel,
Fearne Cotton and currently
Reggie Yates.
Number 1 quirks
Since the inception of the UK Singles chart, many issues have
arisen about certain singles and whether or not they should have
made number 1. This controversy has caused much dispute on a few
number 1 singles - most notably concerning The Beatles' "Please
Please Me", as discussed above.
There was a period of time when the entire record industry took a
break for the Christmas period. This resulted in no release of a
new singles chart on the Tuesday following Christmas Day. When
electronic sales recording took over from sales diaries, a chart
started to be compiled for Christmas week but was never aired.
Usually, it would result in no change at number one. However, there
was one exception; the Christmas period of 1980. A frenzy of buying
John Lennon singles had begun following
his murder on December 8. This resulted in "
Starting Over" topping the charts,
which was then dethroned after a mere seven days by "
There's No-one Quite Like
Grandma". However, after this stayed at the top for a week,
many people had bought Lennon's re-issued Christmas classic,
"
Happy Xmas ", and the new
chart compiled actually had this at the top. This chart was never
published and thus it is omitted from lists of number ones. By the
time the next official chart was issued after the festive season,
"
Imagine" had topped the chart, but
technically John Lennon had three number ones in succession.
In the week of
The
Queen's massive
Silver Jubilee celebrations
in June 1977, the
Sex Pistols were due
to release their second single, "
God Save The Queen",
expressing great contempt for royalty. There was wide speculation
and rumour that the Sex Pistols were going to be number 1 for this
historic week, but surprisingly
Rod
Stewart retained his position on top of the chart for a fourth
week with "
I Don't Want To
Talk About It/
The First
Cut Is the Deepest". Rumours then began to circulate that the
chart compilers had fixed the chart to avoid controversy. A number
of other charts, including that published in the
New Musical Express, placed "God Save
The Queen" at number one.
In the 1950s, singles had frequently shared the number 1 position
for a week, due to sales ties. This had never been an issue ever
since. However, in the 1980s, a new rule was instituted to deal
with any joint positions in the chart (not just at number one): the
single whose sales had increased most from the previous week would
reside above the other. In September 1990, "
The Joker" by the
Steve Miller Band and
Deee-lite's "
Groove Is In The Heart" sold enough
copies to be joint number 1, but because of the rule, Deee-lite
were relegated to number 2 and "The Joker" topped the chart.
Following the controversy and complaints from Deee-lite's record
company,
WEA, the rule was
scrapped and joint positions were once more allowed, although there
have been no more joint chart-toppers since.
In 1987,
Steve "Silk" Hurley's "
Jack Your Body" topped the charts for 2
weeks, but in fact it should have never been there. The 12"
actually exceeded the maximum playing time to qualify as a single
and therefore
Jackie Wilson's re-issue
of "
Reet Petite" should have enjoyed a
fifth week at the top and "
I Knew You Were Waiting "
was deprived of a week at the top, which would have increased its
total to three.
The advent of multi-formatting, whereby a single appears in many
different versions, caused some controversy in 1982 when
The Jam's "
Town Called
Malice" went straight in at number one, thereby keeping
The Stranglers' "
Golden Brown" at number two. "Town Called
Malice" was available in two different versions - the studio
version on the 7" single and a live recording on the 12" - and
EMI (The Stranglers' record company) protested
to the British Market Research Bureau that many Jam fans were
buying both versions of the record. However, the BMRB ruled that
nothing untoward had taken place, and more than twenty years on,
multi-formatting has become the norm.
On a couple of occasions in chart history the wrong number one has
been announced:
- When the chart for the week ending 28 February 1976 was first
unveiled, it was announced that Manuel and
his Music Of The Mountains' version of the Spanish classical
piece, Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, had dethroned
The Four Seasons' "December, 1963 " from the
top spot. But moments after the chart had been made public, it was
discovered that due to a catastrophic 'computer error' the entire
chart was wrong. When the correct chart was compiled, Manuel
(actually conductor Geoff Love) had been relegated to number 3
behind The Four Seasons and Tina
Charles' "I Love To Love", and never did make number one.
- In a similar incident for the week ending 10 November 1979, a
compilation error led to the announcement that Dr Hook's "When You're in Love
with a Beautiful Woman" had topped Lena
Martell's "One Day At A Time." The error did not immediately
come to light, though it was put right in time for that week's
edition of Top of the Pops. Happily
(for Dr Hook at least) "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman"
did make, and keep, the number one spot the following week.
- At the end of each year, the BBC played its Chart of the Year,
featuring a countdown of the best sellers calculated from the
biggest hits of the year. For both the chart of 1975 and 1976,
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, despite being at Number
One for nine weeks, overlapping both years, and becoming one of the
biggest selling hits of all time, failed to make an appearance
anywhere in either BBC Chart of the Year. This error - in an
unofficial chart (the year's best sellers have never formed a chart
of their own) - was not corrected.
Sponsorship
There has been much controversy over the fact that the UK Singles
Chart has, for many years, been sponsored by various companies.
This in itself would be unremarkable were it not for the fact that
the chart is broadcast exclusively on
BBC
Radio 1, a publicly owned radio station that cannot sell
advertising or sponsorship. The singles chart sponsorship is,
however, sold by the Official UK Charts Company, so the
BBC does not receive any money from the deal. They have,
in the past, mentioned the name of the sponsors during the chart
rundown and this has in effect allowed the sponsors to do indirect
advertising on a publicly owned radio station.
For many years the chart was sponsored by
worldpop.com (no longer
exists), a music website. However, in 2004,
Coca-Cola became the sponsors. For a while, the
BBC continued the practice of mentioning the sponsoring company
during the chart show, however there was a huge backlash against
this, partly caused by controversy elsewhere over allowing
sugary/fatty foods and drinks to be advertised to children. It was
also considered controversial as it appeared (erroneously) that the
BBC, a licence-fee supported organisation which does not allow
advertising, was being sponsored.
The BBC initially stuck to its guns but eventually came to an
agreement whereby the name would be dropped from its on-air
broadcast.
See also
- Chart Magazines
- Rival Charts
- Chart Books
References
- PC Pro: News: Beatles albums remastered for
download debut
- Beatles To Dominate Charts As EMI Lawsuit Settled -
TrustedReviews
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search